In business, L. Michelle Smith has lived it.

She is the CEO/founder of no silos communications llc a media and consulting company that blends talent development and strategic communications to develop high-performing executive leaders with a specialty in women and women of color.

She is an ICF-certified executive and personal coach at her private practice, NSC Coaching, where she has worked with executives at American Express, Microsoft, Amazon, AT&T, Lenovo, Zapier, Bank of America, Google, Warner Media, CNN, Capital One and more. She is a go-to executive coach for the Executive Leadership Council as well as the lead trainer at NSC eLearning, a knowledge platform which houses online courses and other digital content for learning centered on leadership.

L. Michelle is also the author of the award-winning and best selling No Thanks: 7 Ways to Say I’ll Just Include Myself: A Guide to Rockstar Leadership for Women of Color in the Workplace (two editions). She is now working on the second in the series: Yes Please: 7 Ways to Say I’m Entitled to the C-Suite, Secrets Women of Color Need to Know Now to Find Their Happy and Win in an Exclusive Corporate Culture (Sp 2022).

She is the creator, executive producer and host of The Culture Soup Podcast® which is heard in more than 70 countries, on nearly every continent.

Previously, she raced to the officer ranks in no time in her career, making vice president before the age of 30. Then she “fell” into entrepreneurship, marking her agency’s 7-figure sales milestone in year 5. She’s held officer-level positions for about half her career, but most recently answered the call at AT&T to build their D&I corporate communications capability from scratch. She did that in two years, then built another innovative, award-winning business model to compliment it, inclusion marketing.

She has more than 25 years of experience as an elite, award-winning communicator and integrated marketer at global agencies, in corporate and her own boutique agency.

She is one of the most-sought after contemporary keynote speakers, facilitators, panelists and hosts on topics surrounding technology, business and culture, and has been featured across the country on some of the most important stages across multiple industries. Previously a contributor to Black Enterprise, L. Michelle is an adjunct professor of strategic communications at the Texas Christian University Bob Schieffer College of Communications where she also sits on the Board of Visitors.